


Revelations

by Natterina



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, I took that angst stick and I beat Riku even harder with it, M/M, Multi, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Slow Burn, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 05:55:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10847826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natterina/pseuds/Natterina
Summary: Riku hadn't meant to say it. But now they're standing there, awkward and unable to speak, and Sora's rejection tastes like ash in his mouth.Post 3D AU.





	Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> Be warned: lots of speculation for KH3 ahead. I contemplated putting this up in two parts, but I didn't want to have two active stories at once, so enjoy!

Riku stands before Sora with his heart laid as bare as he will allow it, his hands hanging tensely by his side.

It is no later than six in the morning.

Riku’s not sure of the time. They had woken up at five at Yen Sid’s bidding, and headed outside for their morning sparring before they would head their separate ways for the day. Only, Yen Sid had left early, and they had taken to play-sparring instead as they discussed the state of their missions.

He’s also not sure that no one else in the tower has overheard their conversation. Aqua sleeps with the windows open, and her bedroom is on the south side of the tower, and Riku _knows_ she will not have slept a wink all night in anticipation of the mission awaiting herself and Riku.

Kairi sleeps with the windows locked and bolted, but she is a far earlier riser than Riku and Sora, for she has recently arrived on a visit from Radiant Garden and her body clock is skewed.

Riku hadn’t meant to say it. They’d finished their sparring, Sora’s keyblade hooking under the curved wing of Way to the Dawn and sending it flying overhead into a bush, and the two of them had leaned back against the wall of the tower. Sora had looked tired, his hairline lined with sweat and a visible bead of it running down his neck from behind his ear.

He hadn’t meant to say _it_. He hadn’t meant to look over and _see_ Sora standing there, face flushed from the exercise and a grin tugging at his features as the leaned with their backs against the tower, joined from the hip to the shoulder with their arms sticking coldly together with sweat. The sun, half risen in the distance, casting light across their upper bodies. He hadn’t meant to loll his head to the side and look into those _damned_ sky-blue eyes to see them looking at him warmly and _blurt it out_.

“I love you.”

He hadn’t meant to lean forward, to place the lightest of damned kisses he’d ever dare give onto Sora’s lips.

But he had, and now Sora, having taken a step back and away from the wall to face him directly, stares at him in shock.

“ _What?_ ”

Riku feels the panic settling into his bones. It starts in his knees, making them shake as his fingers scrape against the brick of the tower. His nails scrape off, splitting with the force of his attempted grip, and he wishes only for the familiar and comforting weight of his keyblade in his hands. He wishes immediately that he can take it back, turn back the damned clock and shove a sock in his fucking mouth.

He wonders, briefly, if Sora would be offended if he were to cast a slow spell and flee into the tower.

But Sora is still standing there before him, lips open and mouth a near perfect ‘o’, expecting some sort of explanation from Riku. He flinches, once, before he figures _fuck it_ , if the dam has been breached he might as well just smash the wall through and let it flow out.

“I didn’t mean to- _damnit_. I love you Sora. Have done since we were kids.”

Sora’s facial expression doesn’t change, though his eyes widen slightly, and for a brief moment Riku dares to _hope_.

But then Sora’s brows furrow as his eyes lower to the floor, and Riku feels the atmosphere between them _splinter_.

“Riku…” There’s something in Sora’s voice that sounds painfully like guilt, and it is the very last thing Riku ever wants to hear right now. His eyes are sad, and he scuffs at the floor with the toes of his bright yellow trainers before he looks back up at Riku. “I’m sorry, Riku. But I don’t… I’ve never- I can’t…”

Sora’s rejection tastes like ash in his mouth, and Riku feels his heart shatter into pieces, like a flawed diamond facing the hammer. Riku feels the tension running through his own body as nausea kicks in, and he no longer feels confident that he will not vomit into the nearest toilet if he doesn’t get out of here _fast_.

Blue eyes lift to meet his own teal ones, and the guilt and sadness there is _genuine_ , and Riku feels it like a kick to his gut. He pushes himself off the wall with his hands, nails scraped and split right down to the skin, and gives only a sharp nod in response to Sora’s words.

The expression on Sora’s face is stricken.

“Don’t go.” The brunet’s voice is barely above a whisper, able to be heard by Riku only because of the early hour. The air around them is still and silent, as Riku shakes his head.

The pain of Sora’s rejection stings like salt to a fresh wound, and Riku finds he cannot stay outside and continue sparring like he hasn’t just gone and ruined their friendship with a kiss.

“I can’t.”

He leaves, keyblade disappearing from the floor near the base of the tower as he heads through the giant oak doors.

Sora remains there, confused and guilty and _hurt_ , watching his best friend flee.

* * *

Aqua has, of course, heard the entire conversation.

She had been watching them spar, after all, taking note of Riku’s fighting style with the knowledge they are to spend the next few months fighting together. She has no wish of entering a battle only to be knocked to her feet, or blasted out of the air.

So, it comes as no surprise to her, not really, when six hours later Yen Sid informs her that herself and Riku are to leave on their mission a day earlier than planned. The excuse given is that they need to get into the Land of Departure and the Castle that Never Was as soon as they can, whilst they are still sure that both places are mostly empty. Riku stands beside her during their debriefing, and he is so stiff and uncomfortable that she wonders if she could use him as a shield. His fists are clenched tightly by his sides as he stares at Yen Sid, his gaze hard, but Aqua notices that he has chewed his lips so much that they are red and raw and _painful_ looking.

Riku remains tense as they head for the gummi ship, though with each step towards his potential escape she notices that he relaxes just a little bit more. He stays outside to check the engines as she heads in so she can set it up, taking the opportunity now to learn as much as she can about these ships.

They would use their keyblades as transport, if they didn’t have cargo to bring back, and if Riku could keep the surfing board he transforms his own into for longer than an hour at a time.

And of course, her hopes that they can leave quietly and without much drama go flying out of the window when the engines start, and Sora leaves the tower.

Aqua is at the ramp by this point, ready to pull it up to close the door after Riku boards the ship, and the flickering of her eyes up and over Riku’s shoulder is enough to warn the silver-haired boy of who is approaching. He turns, hair flying around in the wind produced by the engine, and Aqua feels her heart break at the pain on his face.

She leaves them there, noting with ill-ease in her stomach that Sora looks as though he hasn’t stopped crying in the last six hours. His face is red and blotchy, with visible tear tracks down his cheeks, but there are no tears in his eyes as he approaches Riku. Unfortunately, even in the cockpit of the ship, Aqua cannot tune them out completely, and the glass dome means she practically has a bird’s eye view.

“You’re leaving _now_? Riku, _please_.”

“It’s for the best, Sora.”

She sees Sora pull at Riku’s upper arm, stopping the older man from getting on the ship.

“No, _stop_. You can’t just leave it like this, we have to _fix_ this-“

“We will, Sora! When I get back, when I’ve been able to get _past_ this.”

Riku yanks his arm sharply out of Sora’s grip, but the brunet is insistent.

“Please, I don’t want you to _hate_ me-“

“I could never hate you, Sora.” Aqua happens to be glancing down as Riku says those words, quieter than anything else he has said that day. The effect on Sora is immediate: his face nearly crumples with sadness, and he paws for Riku’s arm pathetically.

But the older man has decided that this is _enough_ , he is done being looked at like a pitiful dying animal in a desert who is too far from his water source, and Riku hops up into the ship using the metal bar. He pulls the ramp in as Sora takes a step back in surprise, and as he bangs his fist on the metal hull Aqua takes the cue to begin take off.

She tries not to look back at Riku as she takes off.

* * *

And the crux of the problem, the very heart of the issue that Sora cannot ignore as much as he tries, is that he _panicked_.

He hadn’t meant to _panic_.

When Riku is long gone, the gummi ship a distant star in the sky that he tries to pick out that very evening as he stargazes, Sora tries to think of any other way it could have gone differently. He thinks of the precise moment that time seemed to stop, every moment of his existence narrowing down to those three words blurted out in the silence between exhausted breaths, and he _cringes_ at his own ignorance. Sora thinks of the utter pain that must have lanced through Riku at his reaction, his blind panic and his pathetically stuttered words of confusion.

Sora cringes at his own actions, and thinks of Riku out there, all sarcastic bite and dry humour to hide the pain he most likely feels, and he wants to _cry_. He doesn’t want Riku to hate him, to think back of their last meeting and be filled with sadness, but he has no idea where they’ve gone and he cannot follow.

He’s laying out on the grass that evening, watching the stars in the hopes that every other comet or shooting star is actually the gummi ship returning, and struggling to come to grips with how everything has drastically changed in the last twenty-four hours.

His eyes are rimmed red, and his nose is a colourful shade of pink from his hand rubbing at it, and Sora hasn’t stopped feeling sick since he watched the ship leave the atmosphere. The air is getting cooler, his arms rising with goose pimples, but the grass beneath him is warm and Sora cannot tear himself away from his thoughts for long enough to sit up and go inside.

Kairi finds him there, just before midnight. The lamps have been extinguished, but the moon is bright and the stars twinkle just as they always do, and so Sora is not as uncomfortable in the low-light as he would be in complete darkness. Kairi approaches with a small plate of bread and cold meat in one hand, and a worn water bottle in the other. It might have been Mickey’s, if the faded Disney Town logo is anything to go by.

“You look terrible.”

Her words cut through the silence, gentle despite the meaning, and she lowers herself to the floor until she is laying there next to him with the plate between them. She is wearing her favourite fluffy pink dressing gown, and Sora huddles closer so that his arm can benefit from the warmth.

Sora wonders when things had changed for Riku. It had always been him and Riku, fighting each other for Kairi’s attentions and her affection. But if Riku’s claims are true, of him being in love with Sora since they were kids, then _why_ did he spend so long baiting Sora in a battle for Kairi’s heart?

And Sora had never even _questioned_ it, even now, even after the year he spent asleep. He _knows_ that the only person who did not forget him was Riku, but he never stopped to wonder if there was any reason behind that. Sora had simply assumed that he had won, saved the day with the light and won the girl. Him and Kairi were always an assumed thing, a tangible future that Sora simply _expected_ to come to pass.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Kairi’s words are quiet, but when Sora inhales a little too sharply she pulls a tissue from one of her pockets. Sora doesn’t _cry_ , per se, but she sits up and captures the lone tear with the tissue before it can fall.

There’s silence for a few more minutes as Sora pulls his thoughts together. He had _assumed_ the natural pairing was himself and Kairi, but really, _why_ did he think that? Does he want her because he thinks he should? Suddenly the thought of kissing Kairi is less of a definitive and more of a hypothetical, because does he want to?

Sora feels his brain tearing itself in two at his own confusion, because he and Kairi are the done deal but he cannot figure out if he has it all _wrong_.

Finally, he sits up to join Kairi and sits opposite her with his own legs crossed. He reaches for the bread first, needing the distraction of chewing something to get rid of all the jumbled thoughts in his brain. Kairi steals a piece of it herself, and he’s thankful for it as it draws attention away from the fact that he’s felt so sick and sorrowful he hasn’t _eaten_.

Finally, he swallows the bread stiffly, and it hurts as it goes down his aching throat.

“Kairi… Do you think we’re good together?”

For the briefest of moments Sora thinks he sees _panic_ flitter across her face: her eyes widen, and her chewing slows to a halt before she swallows and smiles slyly.

“Together? Sora, you’ve never even _kissed_ me.”

And why is that, he wonders.

“No, I know, but I mean… Do you think we’re meant to be?”

Kairi closes her eyes at his words, and he sees her mouth drawn down into a frown. He watches her as she takes a deep breath, and when she opens her eyes that striking violet-blue gaze of hers is locked onto his own.

“No. I don’t.”

Sora’s shoulders slump even further than they were, and he admits to himself that the answer is not the one he wanted to hear, if only because a _yes_ would have been easier. A _yes_ would have meant that he could continue even with his doubts, because they are the _obvious_ choice if he is to believe everyone who spoke to him during his childhood and teenage years. A _yes_ would have meant he could tuck his doubts away and be happy with Kairi, even if he didn’t know if it was _true_ happiness.

A _yes_ would have meant he could ignore the huge bubble of relief he feels rising in his chest.

“Why not?”

He wants her to tell him what to do, to give him some direction in the sea of uncertainty he feels he is drowning in.

“Oh, Sora.” Kairi leans forwards and pushes his limp hair spikes off his forehead. Her touch is gentle, and she strokes his cheek kindly. “We’re best friends, and you will always hold a special place in my heart, but we shouldn’t pretend to love each other just because other people _think_ we would make a good pair.”

“But…” Sora starts, but quickly closes his mouth when he realises she has a point. He’d never stopped to think about it before, not really, but with Riku’s revelation and sudden kiss he realises he has never kissed Kairi because he has never _wanted_ to. He has held her hand on nights like this, just the two of them, but he has never wanted to lean across and close that gap.

Granted, he had never done either of that with Riku either, but he cannot deny that a small part of him _wants_ to. A teeny tiny part of his heart wishes to feel that rush again, the feeling of the butterflies bursting through his stomach before he realised the lips on his own were not the _proper_ ones.

Sora suddenly hates every single person on that damned island who told him Kairi was the one he was destined for.

Because really, why had that seemed the obvious choice? With the exception of the last few years, Sora can likely only count two months of his entire life that he’s spent apart from Riku since the moment he met him. And, he’s pretty sure a week of that is when they caught chicken pox as children, but even that hadn’t separated them for long when Riku had snuck into his room halfway through their parent-imposed isolation. Besides that, they’ve been joined at the hip for _years_.

Riku and Sora, who’d meet at the beach in the early hours of the morning and never leave each other till late in the evening, who would walk to school together and mess around on the walk home, who would dump their bags in one another’s living rooms and run to the beach. _Riku and Sora_ , who would spar for hours in the sand or swim until their skin ran red raw from sunburns, who would retreat to the cold water of the waterfall to recover until one of their parents arrived with the Aloe-Vera gel.

Sora takes a drink from the water bottle, his heart aching and unable to deal with so many revelations in one day. Kairi watches him with a sad smile, and he tries to match it before it falls back into a frown.

“Did you know?”

“Know?” And perhaps Kairi doesn’t know _all_ that has gone on today, for she cocks her head to the side before realisation dawns. “Oh, he _told_ you.”

“How did you know?”

And for a moment, Kairi looks incredibly uncomfortable, for she cannot bring herself to betray one friend’s trust to the other. But this is a desperate time, and she does not think she has ever seen a bigger rift between her two boys.

“It was back on the islands, during the summer. You were on the mainland with your parents, some kind of party. I went to the play island on my own, I think we were thirteen and Riku was fourteen?” Kairi pauses, chews at her lip before she continues. “He was a mess. I found him in the cave in the middle of a panic, because he thought he’d said something to you that made it obvious. It didn’t, obviously, but he was so scared he’d slipped up.” Her voice is gentle, with that kind and friendly lilt to it that can soothe even Sora in the worst of his terror, and he can imagine the scene as though he is watching it.

“Did he… did he say for how long?”

Kairi shakes her head, red hair falling into her face before she brushes it away.

“No. Only that he couldn’t remember a day he didn’t know it was you.”

And Sora feels his heart _break_ at that, because how long has Riku been hurting with this? How long have he and Riku playfully jibed one another over their affection for Kairi, one that doesn’t even go past friendship for _either_ of them?

He doesn’t blame Riku for leaving in such a hurry anymore: he thinks, if the situation were reversed, he would do the same.

Kairi looks startled before him, and Sora realises he is crying again. It is not the wracking sobs of earlier, but the tears are running down his face and he scrunches his eyes shut to stop them. Picking the tissue up from her lap, Kairi dabs at his face as Sora brings his hands to his chest to clutch at himself.

“I don’t… I don’t know what to _do_.”

Kairi shushes him with a soothing _hmm_ , and she shuffles closer to wrap him in a hug.

“I can’t tell you what to do, Sora.” Her grip is comforting as she soothingly runs her hand up and down his back, and there in her arms Sora realises with startling clarity that _no_ , he doesn’t _love_ her. Not as he had convinced himself he did.

“I wish I could go back, and _know_ about it-“

Kairi stops him with a sharper shush.

“Don’t think like that. You made a mistake, but just because he’s gone Sora doesn’t mean you’ve lost the chance.”

“But-“

“No, Sora. You need to think more on this, because you _cannot_ tell Riku you only think you might love him. You need to know.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the pink Wayfinder, one of three that Aqua had gifted to herself, Riku, and Sora. “See? We’ll be together again, and Riku’s charm will bring him back to you.”

Sora feels the weight of his own red Wayfinder in his chest pocket, close to his heart, and nods. Kairi releases him, smoothing his hair back with her hand as he rights himself.

“You gonna be okay?”

And Sora smiles with a sniffle, because he is nothing if not optimistic even with his breaking heart and muddled brain.

“It’ll work out. I know it will.”

And if he is not as enthusiastic as he usually is, Kairi does not blame him as she puts the water bottle back into his hand.

* * *

The months pass quickly.

Aqua and Riku decide to retrieve Ventus first, something they do with very little problems if Riku excludes Ienzo’s smart mouth and snide remarks, but they are forced to place the boy into one of Ansem the Wise’s preservation pods until they can find his heart. They head to the Castle that Never Was not long after: with the entrance to the Chamber of Repose no longer accessible to the apprentices, Ienzo tells them Xemnas likely created a dark corridor inside the Castle that Never Was after Hollow Bastion was recovered by the restoration committee.

Sora passes his Mark of Mastery one month after he watches Aqua and Riku leave, but the only ones there to celebrate his passing are Donald and Goofy. Kairi has been sent back to Merlin, and they’re not entirely sure where Riku and Aqua are. The last communication they get from Aqua sends Sora to Radiant Garden to help search for Ventus’ heart, and it involves a rather awkward encounter between Sora and Dilan. But then it turns out that Sora doesn’t even _need_ his Mark of Mastery for this, because the moment he claps eyes on the older (younger?) boy, Ventus’ heart all but flies out of Sora’s chest. Ienzo has a moment of panic, when both he and Sora fear that Sora’s heart has simply flown out of his chest for a better host, until they realise that Ventus’ heart has been inside Sora the whole time.

 _That_ is an awkward message to send to Aqua. But Ventus, despite twelve years of sleep, is perfectly _fine_ after a few days of exhaustion and muscle stiffness, and Sora finds himself with a new sparring partner as _they_ head off in search of Riku and Aqua.

Roxas surfaces and then promptly _disappears_ after Sora gets a good look at Ventus, however, and so Lea immediately abandons all of his keyblade training in order to search for the missing boy. Sora is kind of glad that he does so, however, because the look of _hope_ in Lea’s eyes that had quickly died when Ventus introduced himself was utterly _heart-breaking_.

And in the midst of all, halfway through their journey to the World that Never Was, Sora wakes up one morning with his feelings _finally_ in order, and he realises with a devastating clarity that perhaps he _does_ love Riku.

Whose hand had he desperately grabbed for, that night the darkness took over the Islands? And he had spent so long looking for _Kairi_ once he knew she was with Riku, and yet the first thing he had done was abandon her in Traverse Town’s _sewers_ to go look for Riku. And that final fight with Ansem; it had been Riku’s voice and heart which had brought him back from the brink, encouraged him to fight _faster_. And even after all that, when he had awakened in Twilight Town a year later, he did not even _think_ to go visit Kairi on the Islands: his entire journey had been focused on finding _Riku_.

And of course, Sora has _always_ found the older man attractive. Riku has always been the most attractive male on the islands, all silver hair and bright teal eyes, tanned skin with a wicked sense of humour to boot, and that was _before_ he started working on his strength and developing his sarcastic wit. Finding Riku attractive is nothing new, but the way that Sora imagines chapped lips on his own and a strong grip around him _is_ new, and Sora feels himself blush into his bedsheets at night.

So perhaps he _does_ love Riku, though certainly not to the extent that Riku seems to be in love with him, but damn if Sora is no longer opposed to the idea of _trying_.

* * *

Aqua has not been out of the realm of darkness for long, and so there has been far too many questions that Mickey had been reluctant to ask her. The task had fallen to Riku, to figure out what had happened at the Keyblade Graveyard, for they could search for Terra’s heart until the damned cows went home, it would all be useless if they could not find his body.

It has been three months since he and Mickey found Aqua in the Realm and brought her back (and they had spent three months _in there_ trying to find her), and two months since they left Yen Sid’s Tower. Riku hopes, as they enter the large white halls of the Castle that Never Was, that she is comfortable enough to answer his questions.

The halls are silent: Riku and Aqua have their keyblades at the ready as they look around the rooms, eyes flitting from the glass staircases to the vaulted ceilings to the hidden doors.

“What happened to Terra’s body?”

Riku’s voice is low as he holds his keyblade in front of him; Aqua has hers low, but the tip glows red with a fire spell she holds at the ready. She dips her head briefly, before she looks up to answer.

“He was taken over by Xehanort.”

Riku freezes.

“Say that again.”

Aqua turns to look at him, confusion on her features.

“Xehanort possessed his body.”

Realisation dawns on Riku.

“Oh _shit_.”

“What? What’s happening?”

But Riku can only look up at Aqua with a mixture of disbelief and fear, because if what he _thinks_ to be true _is_ true, then they are in for a whole load of _shit_ before anything can remotely get better.

“The leader of Organisation Thirteen was Xemnas.”

“So you’ve said before.”

“Yes, but Xemnas isn’t a _possessed_ nobody, not like the others. Xemnas _is_ Xehanort, and was Xehanort as a somebody.” Riku says the words slowly, unsure if he is being clear enough in their delivery. He must be, for something that looks like _anger_ crosses Aqua’s delicate features, and her grip tightens on her keyblade.

“Then even if we get Terra’s heart, we will never get his body back until we defeat Xemnas.”

Riku shakes his head, and Aqua frowns.

“We already _did_ defeat Xemnas. We destroyed him, and we destroyed his heartless, so he _should_ have been reborn as Xehanort. So, Xemnas must be one of the time-travellers, meaning that his original body has come back. Meaning Terra should be back.  _Shit_ this just got way too complicated.” Riku frowns as he speaks, unable to wrap his head around the confusion.

And though Aqua now seems intent and focused as they move through the silent castle, Riku can see the tension in her body, the urgency as she moves silently forwards.

Their hyper-awareness is unnecessary, it turns out, because the entire way to Xemnas’ quarters is _empty_. They come across no one in their path, not even a _dusk_ , and whilst it makes Riku entirely too suspicious, he is thankful nonetheless.

But whatever Riku expects to see when they finally arrive at the large silver door, it’s not what is actually _in_ there. He has seen so many emotions exhibited by nobodies over the years that he _forgets_ they tried to pass themselves off as unable to feel.

With the exception of the dark portal in the far corner of the room, the entire place is pristine white, cold and _bare_. There are no personal touches anywhere in room, no trinkets or coats slung over chairs, no propped open wardrobe door or a shoe in the middle of the floor. There is no carpet or rug, and the curtains are white and clean, though everything is covered in a fine sheen of dust.

It doesn’t look like Xemnas had lived in here a day of his _life_.

Riku finds it quite sad, but it’s nothing compared to how it makes Aqua feel. She remembers Terra’s room back in the Land of Departure, a mess of brightly coloured bedsheets and untidy bookshelves, dark wooden furniture always strewn with some piece of clothing or other. She had spent many nights in his warm bedroom, nestled under the sheets in the dark with the only light source being those _stupid_ glow in the dark stars Terra had stuck onto the walls during his teens.

What she would do to see those stars, she thinks, because looking at this room makes her lose all hope that there is any trace of Terra in that _puppet_.

Riku watches her sombre reflection with sadness in his gut, because he doesn’t even need to ask to know Aqua must have been in love with Terra.

He puts a hand on her shoulder to shake her out of her thoughts, and when she looks up he nods over at the portal.

“Come on. You shouldn’t dwell on this place, it isn’t _him_.”

She only nods, a terrible sadness writing itself into her shaking body.

* * *

When Sora and Ventus land at the World that Never Was, it’s deadly quiet.

It’s eerie, and Sora finds he doesn’t like it one bit. The city had _always_ been loud with sound; the buzzing of the neon lights _always_ served as background noise, along with that constant beat of music in the background that seemed to come from inside one of the strange buildings. There isn’t a heartless in sight, and Sora summons his keyblade in suspicion. Ventus follows suit.

“What’re we looking for?” Ventus whispers into the silence, and Sora marvels at how even their feet moving on the ground makes such loud noise.

“Aqua and Riku. They’re here somewhere, just gotta find them.”

Ventus smiles at those words, and Sora grins back. He knows Ventus is eager to see Aqua: he had taken the news of the passage of time _very_ hard, and Sora doesn’t blame him for wanting to see one of his best friends as soon as he possibly can.

They wander the city for an hour before they come across Riku and Aqua’s gummi ship, but the engines are cold and it’s clear no one has been near it for a few hours. They continue to wander, and the rest of the city is empty until they arrive at Memory’s Skyscraper.

One moment the streets are silent, and the next they walk right into an ambush.

At least, Sora surmises it must be an ambush, because one moment there is only a black hooded figure in the centre of the street, looking confident even with the hood on, and the next they are being overrun by a mixture of heartless _and_ nobodies.

They don’t last very long. Sora reckons they probably dispatch of at least _fifty_ , but it seems as though with every one they kill, three more take their place, and before long Ventus and Sora are performing all sorts of outrageous _tricks_ to try and avoid the _swarm_.

Sora is using a heartless’ head as a stepping stone to bounce off a berserker’s shield when finally, _finally_ he hears the sound of _three_ more keyblades entering the fight.

But it’s not what he expects.

The ground beneath his feet _scorches_ with the strength of the ring of flames that open around Sora and Ventus. It rises almost impossibly high, before it explodes outwards in a devastating attack that wipes out half of the heartless and nobodies around them.

Lea lands beside Sora with a triumphant whoop.

“Cavalry’s arrived!”

“You’re going to make it a habit of saving me, aren’t you?” Sora yells over the din of keyblades, before he realises that Lea couldn’t have brought more than _one_ keyblade to the fight. Before he can ask the question of _who else_ is here, Lea motions over to Ventus.

“Not my idea, _his_.”

And Sora looks over, and briefly fears his vision is deteriorating, because there are two of Ventus fighting back to back. But one of them is holding _two_ keyblades, and Sora nearly stumbles back with surprise because somehow, impossibly, _one of them is Roxas_.

And it _is_ Roxas: the clothing is different to Ventus’, though only slightly, and Sora recognises Oathkeeper and the Bond of Flames. He wonders when Lea had managed to pilfer those from his pockets.

Lea’s flames are still burning on the ground, wickedly hot spirals that burn the heartless that come across it, and Lea only stokes them further as the nobodies regroup and attack again.

So none of them notice, besides Sora, when the cloaked figure standing at the side-lines takes a step back. None of them see him _flee_ into the alley, and Sora takes one look at the remaining mixture of heartless and nobodies and realises there are little enough left that he can give chase.

Lea’s whoops of joy grow quieter as he runs, down towards the alleys.

* * *

They can hear the fighting from several alleys away.

Riku and Aqua had, quite literally, dived into the portal and straight back out as soon as they could. The Chamber of Repose had been horribly _creepy_ , with an unnecessary number of chains stretched all along the wall. Aqua had dived first for her keyblade, and the moment her fingers made contact with it she seemed to _grow_ in her power. She had strapped her old Master’s keyblade onto her back, before she had very carefully wrapped her armour in a bubble spell, to ensure it did not come apart until they could be sure nothing was lurking in it. Riku had then insisted they return immediately, in case any trap were being laid.

They had not run into _anyone_ , until now.

Riku can hear the heavy boots thumping off the dry ground as they approach at a run, and he can hear a distant sound of softer footsteps following them.

He waits at the end of the alley, hidden around the corner, waiting for the person so _eager_ to flee to turn the corner. They do, and Riku swings his keyblade around into a powerful swing that connects quickly and sharply with the man’s solar plexus.

There is a groan, high pitched and full of agony, before the man falls to his knees and holds his hand out to summon a weapon.

As the man on the floor summons a strange but _familiar_ looking weapon, Sora rounds the corner and skids to a halt, nearly bowling over the man as he does so.

“Riku?”

Before either of them can answer, the man turns and swipes at Sora’s legs with the long neck and sharp tip of a sitar, and Riku is knocked to his feet by a wave of water.

“Freeze it!” Sora manages to shout as he summons his keyblade into his hand, but Riku figures he must have forgotten that Riku can’t cast light magic for _shit_. Sora leaps backwards as the hooded man chooses him as his target, and Sora finds the attacks so quick that he can do little more than parry.

Riku cannot move forwards: the water around his feet is preventing him from moving, and with every step he takes he feels as though he is pushed backwards several metres. Aqua cannot use her own keyblade to cast the spell, lest she drop her armour, and for a moment it seems as though the hooded man is going to get away.

Riku is in the process of trying to evaporate a path through the water with a weak fire spell when time seems to stop. Sora falls to his feet with a grunt as the hooded man _literally_ stays frozen mid-attack, and Riku turns to find Aqua has taken the keyblade from her back and aimed it at their attacker. The water at his feet loses shape and drains away, and Sora cocks his head in curiosity at the man.

Riku looks over at Aqua, who is holding both of her keyblades in separate directions; one is aimed at the armour, and the other is aimed at their frozen assailant.

“What did you _do_ to him?”

Aqua grits her teeth with the effort she is putting in to holding the spell.

“I froze the water in his body-“

“Don’t kill him!”

Lea appears as he shouts, and Riku does the exact same double-take as Sora did when he realises he is flanked by Ventus _and_ Roxas. Sora himself looks at Lea incredulously.

“Don’t kill him? He set those heartless and nobodies on us, and he’s just tried to kill me and Riku!”

But _Roxas_ steps forwards, shaking his head whilst he does so, and he approaches the hooded man and yanks the hood back. Sora gasps as Lea looks pained but unsurprised, and Roxas smiles sadly at the frozen man.

“Demyx.”

“I’m still not seeing why we need to let him live.” Riku points out, still soaked below his knees. Sora nods in agreement, though he doesn’t quite catch Riku’s eyes, and Lea holds a hand out to Aqua in a gesture to lower her keyblade.

“Ienzo wants one captured, to see if we can reverse the possession. If we can, we get their plans. If we can’t, we kill him.”

“Oh sure, what could possibly go wrong with that plan?” Riku bites out, but he isn’t sure if his sarcasm is due to the fact that _Ienzo_ is involved, or if he’s getting more guarded due to the presence of Sora.

“It’s worth a try and you _know_ it.” Roxas pipes up, and Riku turns his gaze to him.

“And when did you come back? And why are _you_ not freaking out that he’s your _twin_?” Riku directs the last question to Ventus, who is stood before Aqua with wide eyes and a grin. Aqua quite clearly wants nothing more than to drop her keyblades and wrap the blond up in her arms, if her watery smile is anything to go by, but she cannot risk losing the armour _or_ their frozen captive.

Roxas shrugs.

“He was told about me before he met me.”

“And he just took it in, just fine? Why aren’t _you_ freaking out? Actually, no, you know what, I’m not even surprised. I’m not surprised that _none_ of this is even phasing _any_ of you.” Riku directs this at Roxas, Lea, and Sora, the latter who is looking at him with an awkward smile. Riku returns it, feeling his heartbeat speeding up just at Sora’s _presence_ , and damn if it doesn’t make him feel like a _sap_.

“Can you unfreeze him, so Lea and I can knock him out?” Roxas asks in the silence that follows, and Riku nods at Aqua’s questioning face.

As soon as she lowers her keyblade the spell reverses, though Demyx-Xehanort has no time to react before Roxas utterly _clobbers_ him with the chakram-shaped tip of his keyblade. The thud is so loud that Riku actually _winces_ , convinced that Roxas has just straight up murdered the man.

“Quick, tie him up before he wakes up.” Lea mutters under his breath, bending down to rip the coat into pieces long enough to bind Demyx.

“That’s if he ever wakes up again.” Riku grumbles, and turns to switch his focus to Aqua and Ventus. The blue-haired woman is holding Ventus as tightly as she can with one arm, whilst the blond is hugging her with equal strength. Aqua is crying into his hair, gentle tears of relief and happiness, and Riku can feel himself getting emotional at the reunion.

“I’m so sorry Ven, I’m so sorry I failed you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there with you when you woke up.” Aqua’s smile is happy despite her remorse, and she peppers his forehead with relieved kisses. Ventus wrangles himself away, going red from embarrassment before he allows himself to be pulled in to another embrace.

“You didn’t fail me, Aqua. You saved me.”

Riku decides it is getting _far_ too emotional for him to be listening in on this conversation, and he turns to look at Sora, standing there awkwardly between Ventus and Aqua, and Roxas and Lea. He smiles when Riku looks at him.

“Mad day, huh?”

“You don’t even know the half of it.”

* * *

And, of course, everything goes _awkward_.

It starts the moment he gets on the gummi ship. Riku and Aqua have the larger gummi ship, due to their missions including finding various people, and so when it comes to the return to Radiant Garden they are forced to split. Riku, Aqua, Ventus, the armoured husk, and Roxas pile into one gummi ship, whilst Lea, the bound Demyx, and Sora pile into the other.

It is a terrifying moment when Riku witnesses Lea tie a chakram to Demyx’s chest, and he doesn’t miss the way that Sora pales at the sight.

Riku really wishes he had picked some sort of excuse to go into the ship with Sora, because he would really rather be sitting in an awkward silence with the best friend he can barely look at, than be sitting opposite Roxas right now. They are close enough that their knees are pressed flat against each other’s, and Roxas is sitting there with the biggest shit-eating smirk he can muster whilst Riku squirms.

Roxas does not, of course, hold any sort of grudge against Riku. He understands in hindsight that Riku did not have any other choice in getting Sora back, and he does not begrudge Riku for kidnapping him and locking him away in a simulated town whilst making sure he could not remember his best friend and lover.

But making Riku squirm is satisfying, and Roxas figures he deserves _some_ sort of payback for being forcibly returned to Sora and having to watch his lover commit suicide right in the middle of a desperate search for him.

And Riku _does_ feel a little awkward. He had felt so _horribly_ guilty after he had taken Roxas in and pushed him towards merging with Sora again. It had struck a chord with him, every time he saw Axel repelled from the fake Twilight Town, and he had realised quickly that the nobodies certainly _could_ feel on some level. No amount of ‘acting’ could fake the heartbreak on Axel’s face when he realised Roxas’ memory of him had been wiped.

“You’re sitting too close.” Roxas says, in an attempt to irk Riku.

“Would you like me to swap with the armoured husk your ex-boss would talk to? You could ask it if Xemnas was so obsessed with you because you look like Ventus.”

Roxas scowls, and Riku smirks, and the atmosphere turns a little less tense.

* * *

The awkwardness continues in Radiant Garden, however, because the moment they land Sora insists on not leaving his side.

And it’s awkward, because Sora is acting like everything that happened the day he left _didn’t happen_. There has been no mention of Riku’s confession, and Sora is trying far too hard to maintain eye contact with Riku to the point that _Riku_ is getting a little creeped out by the feeling that Sora is plotting something. It’s awkward, because for some reason Sora is increasing the amount of times he _touches_ Riku. Sora has always been a tactile man, but it seems that with every sentence he says he places his hand on Riku’s arm, or his shoulder, or his back, and Riku _doesn’t_ like it.

Three months ago, he would have _loved_ it. But Sora is acting like nothing has changed between them, and Riku doesn’t know how to deal with it. Riku doesn’t _want_ to deal with it, because now that his love for Sora is out there he doesn’t want to ignore it anymore, and pretending he had never said it to Sora is no longer going to fly in his mind.

He’s trying to figure out what to do, when they gather in Ansem the Wise’s research laboratory. The armour is on the table before them, Ienzo prodding and poking at it with an instrument before he pulls the safety goggles off his face and shakes his head.

“Nothing in there.”

“Really?” Riku feels incredulous. All that effort to retrieve an empty armour. “Then what was he talking to, all those times you said he would go down to speak to it?”

Across from him, Aqua looks a little uncomfortable at that information. Ienzo rubs at the bridge of his nose, breathing out a long-suffering sigh.

“I don’t know, Riku. The armour is empty, though you _did_ protect yourselves from this.” He points to a tiny bump beneath the left kneecap: Riku recognises it as similar to the tracer and microphone he had placed on the underside of Pluto’s collar. Ienzo pries it off with a scalpel, before he summons a hammer and smashes it on the work bench. Sora flinches beside him with the suddenness of the action.

“A tracer.”

Ienzo nods, one hand coming to cup his chin in consideration.

“The spell you put around the armour meant they did not receive any information, though _why_ they felt the need to trace you in the first place I do not know. It is not as though your presence here is being kept a secret.”

“Who says we’re not here in secret?” Sora pipes up, indignant, but Ienzo simply looks pointedly at the ceiling in response.

“You have two spaceships parked _on the roof_.”

Riku thinks it’s a shame he cannot look at Ienzo without remembering all those awful things Zexion had done to him in Castle Oblivion: if not for that, he’d probably find the man _hilarious_. Sora falters for a second or two, before he nods in acquiescence.

“Right, well anyway…” Ienzo tugs his safety goggles back on, and motions to Dilan. “Next one.”

Aqua removes her armour from the workbench as Dilan places a bound and unconscious Demyx-Xehanort before them. Riku doesn’t miss the brief flash of sorrow that flickers across Ienzo’s features before he schools his face into a calm mask, and man does _that_ surprise him. He hadn’t figured Ienzo was capable of that much feeling.

“Can you free him from the boss’ influence?” Lea asks, and Ienzo lowers one hand to wrap around Demyx’s wrist before he shrugs.

“I’m uncertain.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Ienzo. I seen that lab you have under here, can you separate them?”

Ienzo, at the very least, looks conflicted.

“That laboratory was sealed for a reason. But, if we are _careful_ , I can reopen it for the sake of this. But I warn you, I am not sure I can separate the body from the possessor, not without killing him.” His voice falters at that, but only Riku and Lea pick up on it.

“And what do we do?” Sora butts in, already feeling antsy at the thought of just sitting around. But Aqua answers his question, her face pensive.

“Could we go and collect his armour? We don’t know where it is, but it’s something to _do_ while we wait.”

Riku turns to her.

“You want to go searching for _one_ armour set amongst all these worlds?”

“It could lead us to Terra.” Aqua points out, and Riku pauses in consideration.

But Sora, he stands there and wonders, because he has seen Ventus and Aqua’s style of armour before, long before he was aware of any of this.

“I know where it is.”

Riku turns to him, incredulity written plainly on his face.

“ _How_? When did you ever come across it?”

Sora shrugs, feeling the eyes in the room all turn on him at once.

“I didn’t just _come across it_. First it mentioned Aqua, then Ventus, and then it thought I was _the one I had chosen_.” Sora says the last few words with finger quotes. “And _then_ , when it called me _Xehanort_ , it beat the crap out of me for nearly an hour.”

“But you beat it, yes? You can do that again?”

“What? _No!_ I didn’t even beat it, not properly, it just _stopped_ attacking me!”

“But _where_ is it? Is there someone inside it?” Aqua asks before Riku can respond again, and Sora shrugs again.

“Some weird desert world. There’s a portal to it in Mickey’s castle.”

But Ventus and Aqua look at one another with their brows raised, and Sora feels like they won’t be going to Disney Town anytime soon.

* * *

Tracking down the armour does not take long, and in the end Riku finds it a rather sad affair.

They arrive at the top of the ledge, fully fitted in their best gear and absolutely ready for a horrible and difficult fight, if Sora’s retelling of their first battle is anything to go by. Aqua and Ventus follow behind Sora and Riku, the brunet boy leading the way through the arid wastes.

They see it, still standing there all these months later, bent on both knees with the keyblade in the ground before it, looking like some sort of ethereal guard with the cape flapping in the wind. The colours on the armour have faded from so long in the sun, but the browns and oranges are still visible against their surroundings. Aqua and Ventus move in front, figuring they have the best chance of talking it down, and on their approach it looks up.

“ _I remember you. You are the one I chose._ ” Riku hears the words in the back of his mind, whispers on the wind that are there one moment and gone the next. The words curl around his ears and dissipate, and he wonders if he ever truly heard them.

“ _Aqua… Ven._ ” It is more an acknowledgement than a question, and Aqua approaches the armour slowly as Ventus stays behind. There is hope on Aqua’s face, plain as day and painful to look at as she approaches the armour. “ _I stayed… to set things right._ ”

“We will do that for you.” Her voice is barely above a whisper, and the armoured head looks up at the woman before him.

Sora readies his keyblade, preparing himself for a gruelling fight that never comes. The Lingering Will rises to its feet in front of Aqua, hands still on the keyblade, before it bows its head and collapses to the floor.

The four of them stare at it in equal parts shock and horror, neither one of them making a single noise as the armour clatters to the floor and simply _stays_ there.

* * *

“So, are we gonna talk about it?”

Riku sighs, and looks at the clock on the gummi ship’s dashboard. Twenty minutes. Sora had lasted _twenty minutes_ of them being alone for the first time since he’d left the Tower, before he had to go and bring it up.

“I’d really rather not.” He tweaks their speed, for the sake of something to _do_ , and sees Sora shift in the seat next to him.

“Well, I think we should talk about it.”

“I really disagree.” Riku mutters between clenched teeth, fingers fiddling with random dials in order to make it _look_ like he’s not nearly having a heart attack at the thought of having this conversation. Sora moves in the seat again, crossing his legs beneath him and leaning forward so he is in Riku’s field of vision.

“Riku, _please_.”

“ _Fine_ , brat.”

Sora grins, and rests his elbows on his knees.

“I’m sorry I reacted the way I did.”

Riku feels as though his heart has stopped in his chest. He tries not to focus too hard on those words, instead focusing on the stars in the distance.

“It’s fine, I get it. It was a surprise.”

“Yeah, exactly! But I spoke with Kairi about it afterwards-“

Riku wants to melt into the chair, because _great_ , as if it wasn’t bad enough that Kairi had known about his flame for Sora for the last few years, Sora had to go and tell her about _this_.

“-and anyway, I realised that perhaps I didn’t _love_ Kairi because I kinda, sorta, maybe like you?”

Riku’s thoughts screech to a stop, all sense of time disappearing in his mind as he thinks _wait, what._

“Could you…” Riku pauses, swallowing thickly, because this had not even been in the _realm_ of possibility that day he left Yen Sid’s tower. He finds that his throat has gone dry. “Could you repeat that.”

Something unreadable crosses Sora’s face, something that Riku interprets as doubt.

“I realised I wasn’t in love with Kairi, and maybe that’s because it’s _you_ I like.”

Those words do not bring as much joy to Riku as he thought they would, because all he hears in that sentence is the _maybe_ , and Riku will not put himself back in that position from the tower over a _maybe_.

“Sora, please, don’t do this.”

Utter confusion takes over the brunet; he had thought Riku would be _happy_ at this, even relieved. His brow furrows, as he shifts so he can see Riku’s face clearly. Riku is looking down at the dashboard, his hands clenched into fists on his legs.

“Riku, I don’t understand, I thought you would be-“

“Happy? Sora, I get what you’re trying to do, I really do. You feel bad, and you want us to be best friends again, and maybe you _do_ have feelings for me. But Sora, I can’t put myself in your hands over a _maybe_ , or a _like_.” He feels like a damned pre-teen, talking in likes and maybes, but Sora knows he has a point.

“But you told me you loved me.”

“I do, Sora! I do, I can’t remember a day I didn’t look at you and think _you’re the one I want_ , but I can’t do this with you for you to decide three months down the line that your _maybe_ is a _no_. The last I saw you, you thought you were in love with Kairi. And then you’ve spent every moment we’ve spent together _since_ then acting like nothing had changed between us. I need more than a _maybe_.”

Sora opens his mouth to respond, but the words don’t come out. He realises with a pang of pain that Riku is _right_. Riku does deserve more than a maybe, and Sora can’t quite give that to him, not yet.

“But I don’t want to lose you.” Sora’s words are so quiet that Riku nearly misses them, and when he looks over Sora looks both guilty and unbearably sad. Riku sighs, swivelling the chair around so he can look at Sora properly.

“Sora, you’re not going to lose me. Don’t be such an emotional _sap_ , and stop panicking.” He says the latter more as a way of getting his own masculine dignity back. Sora smiles, and Riku tries to pretend that he doesn’t notice how watery and unsteady it is.

They spend the rest of their shift at the helm in silence, both of them lost in their respective thoughts.

* * *

And of course, in typical Sora fashion, it’s after that conversation that Sora _really_ starts to fall in love.

They start to spend more time together, for Aqua and Ventus have their own fighting style that makes them an efficient pairing, and Sora and Riku have always been more powerful together than with anyone else, so it seems the more obvious duo to send on missions together.

They don’t do much fighting, of course: Riku is the expert on staying hidden and tracking others through the darkness, and so they are tasked with finding the Xehanort-possessed Terra and discovering a way to get him back to the laboratory once Ienzo finds a way to separate Xehanort’s consciousness from Demyx’s shell.

Sora becomes hyperaware of everything Riku does. The brushing of their bare arms together sends tingles up his spine, and each time Riku looks him straight in the eyes he feels his heart skip a beat. It feels natural, the way his stomach erupts in butterflies every time Riku gets closer. He can’t help but admire his attractiveness even more, those nights they wander worlds whilst cloaked in the shadows, when they are forced to press against a wall to remain hidden and Sora can smell nothing other than _Riku_.

His dreams turn more towards Riku, beginning with dreams of gentle kisses, but the more they travel the more explicit they become, and one morning Sora wakes flushed, rising from dreams of hot kisses and a hand down the front of his pants. He dreams of strong arms around him and pushing him down onto a bed, teal eyes locking with his own as he wraps bare legs around Riku’s waist, and wakes in such a sticky _mess_ that he spends the rest of the day unable to look Riku in the eyes without blushing scarlet.

He wonders why this hadn’t seemed the obvious choice from the beginning. He wonders, when he catches Riku looking at him and it makes him smile like a silly lovesick teenager, why he had never realised that his best friend, his other half and the opposite side of his coin, could be the one he needed.

Sora could kick himself, sometimes, because he really is such a blind _idiot_.

* * *

After Ienzo manages to separate Xehanort from Demyx, the end result is something that makes none of them confident in their plans.

Because Demyx’s shell withers away not long after Xehanort is removed.

“It is because we don’t have his heart.”

Riku looks over at Sora, who is staring at the empty human-sized test tube with a look of discomfort. Ienzo does not sense the uncomfortable atmosphere, however, and keeps talking.

“If Terra’s heart is still inside the reborn Terra-Xehanort, this _probably_ won’t happen.”

It’s not comforting.

* * *

It takes a few more months of reconnaissance before they finally, _finally_ manage to figure out which one of the remaining hooded figures in the Organization is the body of Terra, and by that point they notice that Demyx’s missing space has been filled.

It takes even longer to spring a trap, to find a way to lure him away, but they manage it.

It involves Aqua and Ventus taking a trip to Agrabah’s market and talking _far_ louder than is strictly necessary, at a time when Terra-Xehanort is nearby on a recon mission of his own. The part of Terra that has not yet seen his friends, that does not know they are alive and present in the Realm of Light, must be fighting against Xehanort’s influence, because it is suspiciously easy to lead him away from the marketplace.

He follows them, not realising that he is in turn being followed by Riku and Sora through the maze of houses. Aqua and Ventus drop enough hints to make the coat-clad man continue following them for nearly an hour, discussing false future plans whilst whispering of a failed assault the week before (which is _true_ , Lea and Roxas had come across _Isa_ and come out the worse for it), and there is no suspicion until he enters the palace courtyard.

Aqua stands on the tip of a pillar, Ventus on the ground below, and the moment Terra-Xehanort enters with Sora and Riku close behind, she encloses the entire area in an impenetrable reflect bubble.

The fight starts immediately, but even with the hood up they do not need to check that they are fighting the right person: the man summons a keyblade, and though they suspect that Xemnas is capable of using one, the build is not _quite_ right for them to be fighting him. Ventus manages to assuage all doubt, however, when he darts forward and pulls the hood off, revealing the apprentice Xehanort whose portrait had hung in the Radiant Garden castle.

That almost costs them the battle: Aqua falters, whilst Ventus openly stares, and Riku takes a blow to the back that nearly renders him unable to move before they pull themselves out of their surprise. Sora realises he is the only one not affected by the appearance of this man, and doubles down on his attacks.

But the Xehanort-possessed Terra does not fight as they expected, when they anticipated he would focus his attacks on Aqua and Ventus to cause the heart inside of him more pain. He focuses on Riku, the inheritor of his keyblade and the only other one in the area who _knows_ how it feels to lose control of himself to a version of Xehanort. Later, they will wonder if it has anything to do with the remnants of Ansem inside Riku’s heart, a remnant that could also hold a part of Terra, but for now Sora panics, unable to get in quick enough to fight _back_ so Riku does not have to take so much of the heat.

The courtyard rings out with the sounds of keyblades clashing, the master versus his predecessor, and Sora and Ventus try desperately to switch the attacks onto themselves. But this version fights like _Terra_ did, and they cannot focus on Terra and avoid the numerous meteors raining down on the battle field. Aqua can only cast so many spells at once, and it quickly becomes a case of Aqua standing above them and administering healing spells whilst they take the brunt of the attacks.

It goes well, and then it does not.

Riku is knocked backwards with a swing of the keyblade to his jaw, and Sora feels an awful sense of de-ja-vu as he looks up the length of a blade, only this time the blade is a keyblade and not the red lasers of Xemnas, but the smirk on the face is the same. He pants, unable to raise his own keyblade in time, and does not feel the blow as Riku blocks it with his own. Riku pushes back, forcing Terra to leap out of the way, but it leaves Riku open and Sora sees the blow before Terra has even moved his body and wrist forward.

It’s a dirty, vicious move, as Riku realises his mistake and tries to summon a dark shield, but he is not _quick_ enough. Terra’s keyblade slashes forward in a diagonal line, splitting Riku’s clothing from breastbone to hipbone, and the flash of light is nearly blinding to Sora.

Sora cries out, aiming his keyblade at Riku’s chest with the full intention of unlocking his heart, because he cannot do this, he _cannot_ lose Riku like this. If it requires unlocking Ansem, then he will damn well do it, because _death_ is not something Riku can recover from.

But Riku falls to his knees, one hand feebly pawing at his own chest as something bursts free. It is not the darkness in his heart; he will _always_ carry that with him, but something that lurks within that darkness that seeks out Terra. Before they can fully register what is going on, however, Terra raises his keyblade once more and slams it into Riku’s face.

Riku falls to the floor, blinded by the pain and the bleeding from his face and chest, and is treated with one more blow to the stomach before Ventus knocks Terra back with a burst of light.

Sora rushes to Riku’s side, panicking and out of potions, with little mana left to speak of, and pushes Riku over to his back.

“No, no, _no_. Get up, you’re stronger than this!”

But Riku rolls back to his side and coughs up an unhealthy amount of blood, and Sora _panics_. His mind throws around blood and internal bleeding and _shit_ , and he pulls as much of his remaining mana as possible into a weak cure. He opens his mouth to shout for Aqua, but the blue haired woman is no longer on top of her pillar.

The sight of Terra nearly killing the boy who he had passed his keyblade onto must ignite a second wind in the woman, for when Sora looks up he feels his mouth fall open at the sight. The woman is _terrifying_ on the field, a fast-moving blur of powerful magic that Sora thinks he would _pay_ to see under different circumstances. Her spells fly out of her keyblade faster than Sora can blink, and she goes from defensive fighting to outright _destruction_.

It’s a good thing she has cast the protective bubble around them, Sora thinks, because the Sultan’s palace would not be standing otherwise. He watches as she floats a metre above the floor, no longer even holding her keyblade as it attacks for her, and Terra cannot block her spells quick enough to react. Combined with Ventus’ quick attacks, they manage to knock Terra to his knees in mere minutes.

It is _fascinating_ , and Sora wishes Riku were conscious to see this, before he looks back down to a much-paler Riku and _freaks_ out. He presses on his abdomen, relieved to not feel a hardness, but the wound across his chest makes Sora nervous as his head aches with the pain of draining his mana. Riku is fully unconscious, and Sora feels his body flood with fear because he should be getting _better_ , not fading away like this.

In the centre of the sphere, Ventus looks at Aqua as she stands before the defeated Terra. His eyes flicker blue, and for a moment it is _Terra_ there, looking around in confusion and horror. But the eyes flash gold again, though his face contorts as Xehanort struggles for control with Terra.

Ventus wonders if Roxas has been giving lessons, because one moment Aqua is staring down at blue eyes with hope and fear, and the next she swings her keyblade so hard that when it connects with Terra’s head Ventus figures it’s a wonder if she hasn’t cracked his skull. Terra falls to the floor with a thud, and Aqua bends down to his level and pulls the pauldron from Terra’s armour from her hip-bag. She activates his armour, taking a step back as it enshrines his body in gold and red and leaves him trapped within it, before she recasts the reflect spell so that the sphere forms only around him.

Ventus steps closer, looking up at the armoured body with sad eyes, and Aqua reaches out her hand to comfort him.

“It’ll be alright, Ven. Please, keep an eye on him.”

And then she runs to Riku, praying it is not too late.

* * *

It is not too late.

Riku is strong, and Aqua’s healing magic is akin to something out of legend, and so even with her minimal mana she is able to seal up the wound on Riku’s chest and fix the broken nose, eye socket, and cheekbone. She does not heal the bruising, telling Sora that she needs to use the rest of her power to heal Ventus and himself. And so, with a quick sleep spell, Riku is put on the gummi ship with far too many bruises and the guarantee of a splitting headache when he wakes up.

Sora takes a moment to remind himself that no matter how much good he can do with the keyblade, it is still a weapon capable of huge amounts of damage.

Aqua elects to keep watch over Terra, who is now conscious and awake inside his spherical prison, and she locks herself in the back-bunk room with him to keep herself from being distracted. Keeping the spell up is exhausting, and she is taunted too many times over the evening.

“It’s really me, this time.”

It’s not, she thinks, because if it was then Terra would have no problem remaining inside the sphere for her own safety. She ignores it, holding her wayfinder in front of her and reminding herself of why she fights.

Sora leaves Ventus to pilot the ship, and hides himself away in the other bunk room with Riku’s sleeping body. Though he is healed, his face is a mess of purple and blue, and his cheeks look stiff from the extent of the bruising.

He wonders if this is how Riku felt when Sora was in that pod, looking down at someone he cared about _so much_ and wondering if he’d ever wake up.

It’s ridiculous, he knows, because he was never badly injured, and Riku _will_ wake up once the spell wears off. Yet Sora is terrified that something bad will happen, that will prevent Riku from waking up and hearing what he has to say.

Sora sits there, half on the bunk with one hand resting on the other side of Riku’s body, eyes on the door in case Terra breaks free of the containment spell.

Except Sora is exhausted, and so after only a few hours he himself falls asleep, resting his chin in his hand and his elbow on his thigh, and he wakes as he sways forwards and falls onto the floor.

Riku’s laughter, sharp and followed by a groan of pain, brings him back to the present.

“Riku!” Sora scrambles to his feet and all but launches himself at Riku, and the older teen gives another grunt of pain as Sora collides with his bruised chest. “How long have you been awake?”

Riku pushes Sora off his chest, more because of the pain Sora’s grip is causing him, and tries to sit upright in the bunk. But his chest aches with the bruise and he cannot do it, so Sora helps pull him into an upright position.

“Long enough to watch you fall on your ass.” Riku coughs, flecks of blood that have remained in his throat coming up, and then winces with the pain. “I feel like I’ve been hit by one of those fire trucks.”

“Nah, but Terra did hit you pretty bad.” Sora leans forwards and places both of his hands on Riku’s chest; Riku narrows his eyes for a second, until he sees the green healing magic seeping out of Sora’s hands. The pain in his chest and face dims, no longer aching sharply, and the bruising on his face lightens in colour. “Better?”

“Much.” Riku looks at Sora, who is chewing his lower lip between his teeth as he pulls his hands back, and gives him a gentle shove. “Hey, back to this world. Did you catch him?”

Sora, who has started to act out the conversation he wants to have with Riku out in his head, feels himself brought back to the current moment. “Hm? Oh! Yeah, we did, he’s in the other room with Aqua.”

“You brought him _on the ship_?”

“Well, yeah? Did you think she was just going to wrap him in that spell and have him dragged behind the ship?”

Riku relaxes, conceding Sora’s point.

“Would have been safer.” He grumbles under his breath, and Sora laughs.

“You sound like Roxas.”

That prompts a scowl from Riku, and Sora shifts himself closer as he laughs until he is almost _too_ close to be friendly. Riku looks up at him, and it is that same look from the tower as his breathing quietens.

“Sora, don’t…”

But Sora _knows_ why Riku is still reserved, holding back from letting Sora in, and it’s because Sora cannot really convince him of his feelings with words. So Sora leans closer, watching with a grin how Riku’s eyes widen a fraction as his breath hitches. Finally, too many months after their first kiss, Sora closes the gap and kisses him.

It’s parallel to their first kiss, with Riku being the one who freezes at the connection, but Sora feels his stomach flip with nerves and pushes through, pressing his lips hard against Riku’s until the other man responds.

And he does. Once Riku is past the initial freaking out, thinking _this isn’t real_ , he feels Sora lower a hand to his chest and reality kicks in. He moves, changing the angle of their lips as he moves his hand to Sora’s lower back and pulls him closer. His chest hurts when Sora presses against him, but Riku doesn’t care as he opens his lips and deepens the kiss until Sora straddles him, the hand on his chest moving to cup his jaw.

Riku can hardly believe it is happening, Sora nestled against him and kissing him like it is the last thing he’ll ever do, slow and sweet and warm and _real_.

But eventually his chest hurts too much to support Sora’s weight on him, and Riku reluctantly pushes Sora back. The brunet complies, a small frown on his lips until Riku smiles at him.

“So, can we give it a try?” Sora asks, already missing the warmth against his chest. Riku furrows his brows in confusion.

“Give what a try?”

“This! Me and you. I know can love you, Riku, if you just _let_ me. I know it hurt last time, when I said no, but I _know_ that I want you. Please, can we try?”

Riku laughs, and the action is not as painful as it was when he woke up. Sora’s frown returns, until Riku pulls him closer for a quick and gentle kiss.

“Yes, you _sap_.”

* * *

The final reunion, of Terra, Ventus and Aqua, goes as smoothly as they can hope.

Riku steps off the gummi ship only to find Kairi launching herself at him and Sora in delight at their safe return. Lea and Roxas wait by Ienzo and a nervous-looking Even, who scowls when Lea winks at him over Roxas’ head.

Within minutes they take Terra’s possessed body down to the laboratory, where Ienzo and Even bar them from the floor whilst they bundle a newly-unconscious Terra into a chamber and bolt the door shut.

They wait for what feels like hours. Aqua and Ventus do not leave each other’s side, both of them filled with a nervous kind of excitement, until more hours pass and Ienzo calls for Aqua to verify that they have been successful. Ventus, Riku, and Sora are allowed into the computer room, where they are separated from the chamber by a large window, and allowed to watch as Aqua questions Terra for nearly ten minutes, standing a distance to keep herself safe.

They watch as she approaches him after that and points her keyblade at the lock on the chains. They fall to the floor, and Riku watches in astonishment as Aqua, half laughing and half crying, _lets_ Terra wrap her in his arms. He is not surprised that Aqua has feelings for Terra, he had thought that obvious the moment Aqua first spoke of him, but he is surprised that Aqua, who has spent the last several months acting as the strong and unmoveable leader of them all, has allowed herself a moment of hope.

Ventus gives them five minutes of alone time before he leaves the room to join them, and the _joy_ on Terra’s face at seeing Ventus awake is emotional in itself. Aqua and Terra pull Ventus into a bone crushing hug, and the laughter can be heard through the glass.

Terra glances up as Riku smiles at the sight, and the two lock gazes over the heads of Aqua and Ventus. The brunet smiles, and Riku nods his head before he turns to look at Sora.

“You’re crying.”

Sora wipes at his face with the back of his hand, and laughs into the empty computer room.

“Cause I’m not an emotionless rock like you.”

“Sap.”

“Asshole.”

Riku laughs, and slings an arm over Sora’s shoulders as Sora grins at the trio in the other room.

“C’mon, we’d better take the day to do something fun with Kairi. Once Terra’s recovered, you know we’ll be back out there now that we’ve got him back.”

Riku hums in agreement, because he knows the next few days are going to be an emotional rollercoaster. Terra no doubt has nightmares of his own to work through, and Aqua has already made Riku the de-facto person to talk to Terra about the darkness in his heart. They need to recover quickly, before they can begin their plan of attack on the true Organization, and they _do_ deserve a day of rest.

“Disney Town?”

Sora looks up at him like Riku has just promised him an early birthday.

“Really?”

“I’m sure we’ll be allowed off-world for a _day_. It’s not that far. And we’ll need to get Mickey anyway.”

Sora’s grin is the widest it has been in _months_ , as he leans up to kiss Riku’s cheek before darting out of the room to grab the third member of their trio.

Riku takes one last look at the reunited friends in the other room, and if his eyes feel a little watery, well, Sora’s not there to see it.


End file.
